Vostochny Press: the first pairs, the new arena and the doping scandal in the KHL

All the participants of the Gagarin Cup playoffs have been determined and the pairs of the first round are beginning to form. The main intrigues of the rest of the regular season and the most important events before the start of the playoffs are described in the Izvestia article.

Doping in CSKA

Perhaps the main event of the past weeks has been the positive doping test of CSKA striker Vladislav Kamenev. Meldonium was found in the hockey player's blood, and this could lead to disqualification for as much as four years. It is unlikely that Kamenev took this drug on purpose — meldonium helps to increase endurance, but in game sports its effect is negligible. Most likely, either the doctors or the player himself made a mistake, but this is unlikely to save him from punishment.

Kamenev has another year of contract with CSKA, but if a player is suspended for four seasons, the army club has no reason to keep him in the squad. Kamenev will not be able to play in competitions under the auspices of the IIHF, so the road to the European championships is closed for him.

But the NHL does not obey the laws of the international federation, so Vladislav may well go to North America. For example, Evgeny Kuznetsov, being disqualified for four years after the 2019 World Cup, continued to play quietly for Washington.

Kamenev is not having the most successful season, but in any case it is one of the strongest bilateral Russian centers. At the same time, Vladislav is a cup player, in two victorious playoffs for CSKA, he scored a total of 30 points. He played in the Nashville and Colorado hockey systems, so Kamenev won't need much time to adapt to North American hockey. It is unlikely that he will be able to count on a big contract, but in the lower ranks such a player would be useful to many teams.

The SKA Renaissance

Meanwhile, SKA, without its most star player, scored a great move, winning four matches in a row, two of them against direct competitors in the conference — Dinamo Minsk and CSKA. It will be difficult for the army to rise above the sixth line, but with such a game as it is now, no one will want to go to SKA.

19-year—old Egor Zavragin looks very confident in goal, considering that Artemy Pleshkov did not go on the ice after his injury, it seems that SKA has decided on the main goalkeeper for the playoffs. At least at the beginning of the first round. The army team has adjusted the defensive game — there are no such failures as, for example, in the match against Ak Bars in early February or against Spartak at the end of the same month. It's easier for the goalkeeper in such a situation.

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Sergei Tolchinsky has already been given up on — this season one of the highest-paid strikers in the league is failing, sometimes not getting into the squad. But closer to the playoffs, SKA's number 28 rebounded - returning to the lineup for the match with Magnitogorsk (4:2), he made a double, and then brought his scoring streak to three matches. Tolchinsky played in them for an average of 17 minutes, spent more than 10 minutes in total in the majority — such trust benefited Sergey. Will it keep this level of charge in the relegation games? So far, it all looks more like a one-time surge.

New arena in Yekaterinburg

Avtomobilist opened the new UMMC Arena after losing to CSKA, but that wasn't the surprise — there were plenty of empty seats in the stands. About 2 thousand spectators were missing before the full house, and even more at the next match against Torpedo. At the same time, all tickets were sold out long before the start of the matches.

The problem in Yekaterinburg is quite obvious — resellers buy back a huge mass of tickets immediately after the opening of sales and then sell them at a higher price. Not all fans are ready to overpay extra money to speculators, as a result — gaping voids in the stands and loss of entourage. Avtomobilist does not see a solution to this problem and has distanced itself from it. We can only guess what will happen in the playoffs.

Who's the favorite?

In the West, the first pair of playoffs has already been decided - Lokomotiv will play with Torpedo. There is no special intrigue in this confrontation: Yaroslavl is stronger than its future opponent in all indicators and in all lines. Maybe there is not so much difference in the goal line, where Ivan Kulbakov from Torpedo looks very confident, and Daniil Isaev is just recovering from an injury. But otherwise Nizhny Novgorod residents have nothing to hope for.

It seems that in his third year at Torpedo, Igor Larionov simply exhausted himself. Even during last season, he moved away from combination hockey, which he instilled in the team after his appointment, simplifying the game. This did not bring any special dividends, and Torpedo gradually turned into an unremarkable team. That is, they would have flown away from the Locomotive even with the previous style, but they would have done it beautifully. Right now, Yaroslavl will simply take out the opponent without much chance for him, and we will forget this series the next day. Especially considering what kind of confrontations are expected in the West in the first round.

The second obvious favorite of the Western Conference besides Lokomotiv is Dynamo Moscow. Alexey Kudashov's team has confidently beaten Avtomobilist, Lokomotiv, Salavat Yulaev, CSKA and Avangard this month alone. The absence of goalkeeper Vladislav Podyapolsky, who has not played due to injury for a month, does not bother at all - Maxim Motorygin looks gorgeous. Podyapolsky should be back in action by the playoffs, and then Dynamo's coaching staff faces a dilemma.: Who should I put in the gate?

Traktor won the Eastern Conference, and this is natural, given the game that Benoit Groux's team has shown for most of the season. But the anger of the Chelyabinsk general manager Alexei Volkov about refereeing after the 2-6 away defeat to Ak Bars is not entirely clear. It is clear that Volkov can afford to pay a fine of 300 thousand rubles, but there was definitely no judicial arbitrariness in that match. And there are also enough games in which the referees make a mistake in favor of the same Tractor. The quality of refereeing in the league really leaves much to be desired, but there is no bias.